His Smile Showed The Sky
by Princess Quill
Summary: Ben Solo brings Rey back from the dead, a feat which nearly kills him. Now Rey must get him to safety and learn who Ben really is. A re-imagining of the ending of The Rise of Skywalker.
1. Chapter 1

Rey walked among the stars.

They were with her here, and in this fragment of time she understood that they had always been with her—she simply could not hear them. But she could hear them now, as clear as the light embracing her, as strong as the purpose that had consumed her when she lifted her sabers and caught the emperor's lightning in their blades. Luke was there, and Leia was there, and—her parents. She felt their spirits caught in the vast web that was the Force, and their presence filled her with peace. At last she knew them. At last they were together.

The fabric of the Force rippled in the corner of her mind, like someone was tugging at a thread and trying to unravel it. Curious, Rey reached out, touching the thread with her power. Something stirred in her memory when she did, a presence she normally knew as blazing and volatile. But it was neither of those things now. It was certain, steadfast, a little desperate. It was trying to find her.

_Ben._

He had not come with her. Despite their connection, the fact that they were—what had he called it?—a _diad_ in the Force, they had been separated. Dissatisfaction disturbed Rey's peace, and she surged forward, following the thread further, looking for him—

Her lungs expanded and breath rushed in, tainted by dust and smoke and death. But Rey could not taste it. She was still full of the starlight she had just chosen to leave behind. Her eyes blinked, her spirit settled in her body, and the world came into focus, the darkness of the grand Sith chamber fading away from the light of Ben Solo's face. She lay cradled in his arms.

Rey sat up, disbelief and shock still fizzling in her nervous system. She had seen the emperor cast Ben into a chasm—and yet here he was, holding her like she was the most precious thing he had ever known. He had done as she had showed him, and used his mastery of the Force to heal her, to bring her back to life.

Rey could not deny the bubble of joy building in her heart.

"Ben," she said. Because he was. Kylo Ren, the façade he had built to protect the vulnerable man within, was gone. Ben Solo, the one whose hand she'd long to take, was in front of her now.

She kissed him. The Force sang with excitement as their lips met. The connection between them was burning bright, humming with approval and happiness and _correctness_. They came together now not as adversaries, fighting fruitlessly what drew them towards each other, but as twin souls finally recognizing what lay between them.

They drew apart, and for the first time since she had known him—had she ever really known him?—Ben _smiled_. It was a smile that cracked the armor protecting her heart and let the truth flood in. It was a smile that showed the sky.

But then that same smile faded, and suddenly Ben slumped back, collapsing to the floor. Rey scrambled to her knees and bent over him, horror crystallizing in her veins. Bringing her back from beyond was no small feat—it could easily have spent the last of whatever energy he had left. She reached for him, half expecting for there to be nothing to hold onto, but her hands met flesh and bone. His eyes fluttered open, and he smiled again, much weaker this time.

"I'm all right," he said. "Or I will be, now that you're back."

He lifted his hand and touched her face. She pressed it closer, turning her face to kiss his palm. "I'm not going anywhere ever again," she said. "You rest now—I'll worry about getting us out of here."

Ben nodded, but halfway through the motion his head flopped to one side, surrendering to exhaustion. Just to be sure, Rey checked his pulse. It was quiet, but it was there. He would survive, as long as she could get him somewhere he would be safe, where he could recover.

She was unfathomably glad about that.


	2. Chapter 2

Rey stood and looked around. There was no remnant of the emperor—he had been utterly unmade by his own power. Only the machine that had sustained him all these years remained. The throne of the Sith had been thrown down by the rocks that had tumbled from the ceiling, pieces of the massive statues that had characterized the chamber, monuments to evil men and women that the Sith had worshiped.

_Perhaps not evil_, Rey thought. _Perhaps only misguided, like I nearly was_.

She glanced up at the open sky. The tide of the battle had clearly turned in the Resistance's favor, and her fear for them had dissipated. Her only responsibility now was to find a way to reunite with them, and to bring Ben with her. She knew she did not have the energy to restore his health like he had done for her—and more. Several of his bones were broken, and he was now in such a deep sleep that she doubted he could be roused for days. No, she would have to carry him out of here, and back to Luke's X-wing. She tried not to think how far of a journey it would actually amount to. She simply had to take it one step at a time.

The passage out of the chamber had been blocked when the statues had fallen. Now a pile of boulders lay in her way.

"Lifting rocks," Rey muttered to herself, not without humor. She didn't know if she had it in her to clear the entire passageway, but at least she could carve out a small path for herself and Ben to get through. She moved closer, planting her feet solidly on the ground, trying to convince herself that she wasn't compromised by her recent death and subsequent resurrection by her former enemy. No, she was merely Rey, and she could do this.

She closed her eyes, and instantly they were with her. The voices whispered in her ear as soon as she asked for them. Not like the long, frustrating silence that had stymied her for so many months of her training. She and the Force were one now, whether she liked it or not. And she liked it.

Rey reached out her hand. She could tell she was weakened, but the Force sprang up to meet her like an obedient animal, eager to please. The shapes of the rocks in front of her were as clear as ever. She moved forward with her senses, probing their forms, lifting and pushing until she had cleared a slender trail through the debris. She let the rocks tumble to the side and opened her eyes. She was sweating profusely—the task had been harder on her body than it had been on her mind. But it was done now, and the rest should just be a matter of finding her way out.

As she turned back to Ben, though, a shadow moved in the corner of her vision. A hooded figure approached, limping slightly. Rey's twin lightsabers leapt to her hands, igniting with a snap-hiss just as a red blade sprouted from the handle of the mysterious figure's own saber.

"Who are you?" she said.

"I am no one," came a low voice from within the hood. "I am everyone. I am those you just betrayed. The ones you should have ruled."

Perhaps not all of the Sith in the chamber had been crushed, Rey realized suddenly. Were there more out there, waiting to descend? She did not have the strength to deal with dozens of adversaries. But she did have the strength to deal with one.

"The emperor you served is dead," Rey said. "I am not your empress. You are free now."

"Free?" the Sith laughed. "The Dark Side is freedom, you foolish girl. And you destroyed your only way to reach it."

The dark figure attacked.


	3. Chapter 3

Their lightsabers met in an unholy snarl. Rey's muscles shuddered with the impact. The Sith's hood fell back as their weapons collided, revealing the wild, severe face of a woman that Rey could so easily have been. Her cheekbones were sharp, her pale hair drawn back into tight braids, and her eyes were tinged with gold and red.

"We don't have to do this," Rey said, just inches from the other woman's face. "You can still leave this all behind. I won't stop you."

"How very noble of you," the Sith hissed. "I don't want your mercy. You're the one who deserves pity—not me."

She heaved against Rey's lightsabers and broke free, arcing her blade out to the side. Rey leapt out of the way in time, but her reflexes were a hair slower than usual. She needed to end this battle quickly, before she bled herself dry. If she couldn't get through to this woman, then she would show her mercy in another way—with a quick death.

Rey lunged forward. The Sith dodged, a movement that she was clearly used to being deft, but whatever injury she had sustained during the chamber's destruction caused her to stumble. Rey sent out a wave through the Force, pushing the woman further off balance and knocking her to the floor. In three swift movements, she crossed to her, sliced her weapon-wielding hand from her arm, and knelt down with the cross of her lightsabers at the woman's neck.

The Sith's lips curled back in a sneer. There was no fear in her eyes, only unadulterated contempt. "You think you can save him," she said, and Rey knew who she meant. The faint glow of Ben's life force was a constant presence at the edge of her mind. "But the Dark Side is not a master you can betray. He will never be yours. You can't sa—"

Rey spun both blades outward, and the woman's head fell to the floor and rolled across the stones.

Rey rose, looking down at the body with no real emotion. "I already did," she said calmly.

She returned to where Ben lay, undisturbed by the fight or anything going on in the world around him. In sleep his face was peaceful, his mouth still remembering the smile after their kiss. Rey smiled too—she couldn't help it. Even the Sith woman's words could not sully this victory. Perhaps Kylo Ren could not have been saved, but Ben Solo was a different matter.

"Come on," Rey said softly to Ben, even though he couldn't hear her. "Let's get out of this place."


	4. Chapter 4

Carrying Ben was nothing like lifting rocks. Maybe it was their connection through the Force that made it so effortless, or maybe it was her own determination, plain and simple. She floated his sleeping body high above her head as she picked her way through the path she'd made in the rubble. The Temple of the Sith had lost its power to frighten her. The lightning that had danced throughout its vaults was silenced now, vanished with the man who commanded it. Rey passed the clones of Snoke floating in water, dozens of his gruesome face pressed against the glass and leering.

"Should have known you were a puppet," she said as they went by. It was strange to see his face again, when the last time she'd glimpsed it was that night in his throne room, when Ben—Kylo, rather—had ignited her own lightsaber and turned it on his master. His death might not have mattered to the emperor, considering how many copies he had of him as backup, but it had mattered immensely to Rey. It was her first real sign of hope in Ben, that the man he'd used to be, the man that Han and Leia had raised, was still in there somewhere.

And she'd been right to hope. She drew Ben down to waist height and smoothed some of the hair away from his face as she walked. "I've never given up on you," she said. "And I never will."

She knew there would be questions when she got back to the Resistance base. She couldn't very well waltz in with the former Supreme Leader of the First Order and expect everyone to welcome him with open arms. There would be distrust, fear, even outrage when they saw what she had brought back with her.

_If only Leia was still here_. Ben's mother had given up her life to save him. That would have to be enough for the Resistance to give Ben a chance. Even if they didn't trust him, even if they didn't trust Rey herself, they would do it for General Organa. She had been far too beloved and respected for them not to at least consider her son worthy of a shot at redemption.

Of course, Leia wasn't out of reach for Rey. She understood now that her ancestors, spiritual and biological, were waiting for her amongst the stars. They had spoken to her; Luke had visited her. But she didn't need to speak to Leia to know what she would want for her son. It was what any mother would want for her child.

But first Rey had to get Ben to safety before she could worry about advocating for him. They were coming now to the shaft that led to the surface of the planet. It hadn't been so hard to reach the bottom, using the Force to soften her landings, but getting _up _was another thing entirely, especially with the precious cargo she bore now. Rey looked up, up, up into the dimness. There was no way she could call Luke's X-wing down to herself—it wouldn't fit through the strange crevice that had brought her here. And she didn't think she could float herself _and_ Ben all the way up to the top. No, she would have to rely on some of her old skills to get her out of this mess. Setting her jaw, Rey began to look around for what she needed to scale her way to the surface.


	5. Chapter 5

Sweat beaded on Rey's brow as she reached for the outcropping above her. It was just barely out of range. She expended a little extra energy to boost herself with the Force and grab it. Heaving herself up, she managed to dig her toes into the side of the wall and climb a little higher. She threw a glance over her shoulder to make sure Ben's floating body was still right beside her. It was greatly taxing her, to keep him hovering as she climbed. Even though this sort of thing came naturally to her, after a lifetime of scavenging on Jakku, this would have been a challenge under the best of circumstances, which these were decidedly not.

For reassurance, she had found a cord amid the rubble on the floor and used it to tether Ben to her, each end of the cord looped around their waists. A sort of physical depiction of their metaphysical bond. It at least kept him close to her, though it wouldn't do her much good if she lost concentration and dropped him—he would likely take her tumbling down with him. And so the journey had been an arduous one. Luckily for both of them, it was almost over. They were nearly at the top.

She sent him over the edge first, allowing his weight to be a sort of anchor as she made the last leg of the climb. She dragged herself onto the surface and rolled onto her back, breathing heavily while Ben bobbed like a balloon above her.

"It's a good thing you're unconscious for this," she told him. "I don't think you'd find this very dignified, even if you have changed."

She wondered what Ben Solo's sense of humor was like. She couldn't wait to find out.

After another moment of catching her breath, Rey struggled to her feet. She was running on fumes now. The thought of sinking into the cockpit of the X-wing and letting her flying skills take her the rest of the way to safety was a light at the end of the tunnel. But there was one not-so-small problem she had to solve before she could do that.

The X-wing was waiting, right where she'd left it. The TIE fighter that Ben must have flown in stood at attention next to it. Logistically, Rey knew it would make more sense to take the fighter—but there was no way she was leaving Luke Skywalker's famous X-wing on Exogol. The cockpit stood open. Rey braced herself on the side of the ship, panting slightly. This next test would not be one of strength, but one of humility.

"Why do you insist on being so _large_?" she said chidingly to Ben.

There was no way around it. Luke's ship wasn't a tandem X-wing; there was only room for the pilot and an astromech. She would have to fit them both in the cockpit together.

She clambered up onto the nose of the X-wing and untied the cord from each of their waists. Then she carefully drew Ben over the cockpit, angling his body so he was more or less upright, and then lowered him gently into the ship. She assessed the situation from where she stood on the ship. He certainly took up a lot of room. It was something she took for granted, being small and able to sit comfortably at the helm of most ships. She suspected Ben, as Kylo, had had ships custom made to suit his size.

They had no such luxury now. At least, Rey consoled herself, there would be no witnesses to her actually getting _in_ the ship—but there would be plenty when she was trying to get out. Gingerly, she slid into the cockpit and onto Ben's lap. Her legs did not quite fit the way they should, so her knees jutted up slightly, and she had an awkward angle at the controls. It was crowded, but it would do the job.

"Not exactly how I would have liked this to happen," Rey told the unconscious Ben, closing the cockpit and gearing up the ship for launch. "But I'll take it."


	6. Chapter 6

The X-wing soared through the battle, dodging blasts and moving ships and flying debris from the Star Destroyers that the Resistance was pummeling into space trash. Explosions lit up like fireworks, soaring past the windshield like this was a victory celebration, not an almost galaxy-ending conflict. Rey certainly preferred to think of it as the former. The feeling of utter despair was not far from her, the voice of the emperor like a cold blade pressed against her throat. Threatening her friends. She had agreed to become empress, to accept his horrible inheritance, if it meant saving the people she loved. She had been willing to do it. She had been ready to do it.

The fact that she had not been met with that cruel fate still felt far too fragile to her, like her triumph might turn out to be a farce in the end. But Rey could not deny the truth of Ben Solo's body pressed against hers, even in such an ungraceful way as this. He was not a farce—he was alive, and he was real.

So was the voice that buzzed in on her comm unexpectedly.

"Rey! Come in, Rey! Is that you?"

"Poe!" Rey was so relieved she laughed out loud. "Poe, I—yes, it's me! I'm so happy to hear your voice."

"Right back at you," Poe said, and she could hear the smile in his tone too. "Damn, that was a close one, huh?"

"Real close," Rey said. "For both of us."

"Yeah, well—lucky for you I'm a difficult man."

"Lucky for me." Rey nosed the X-wing down to stay out of the trajectory of another Resistance fighter. She wasn't interested in joining the battle, not with what she was sitting on, literally and figuratively. "Where's Finn?"

"He's okay," Poe said, answering her real question, and Rey let out a breath she hadn't noticed she was holding. "He ran ground ops on the head Destroyer, and—"

"He _what_?"

"Don't yell at me, okay? I said the same thing. But he's a hero, Rey. He took down the signal. Changed the whole game."

"I'm glad he survived so I can murder him later."

"Ha—not if I get there first!"

"We'll see about that. I'm going to head back to base. Are you all right to finish up here without me?"

Poe made a very Poe-ish sound into his com; something along the lines of _pssh, do you even need to ask?_

"Perfect. And hey, Poe?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm, er, bringing something back with me."

The comm was silent for a minute. Then: "Okay."

"And I need you to stay calm when you see who—what it is. Can you do that?"

"Sur—" Rey heard the sound of blasters through their connection, and Poe grunting as he maneuvered his fighter. "Sure thing."

"I mean it. I need someone to have my back."

"I've got it, Rey. You know I've got it."

Rey smiled. "I know."

With that, she dipped the X-wing nose first and took her and Ben out of the battle.


	7. Chapter 7

Rey landed the X-wing a healthy distance from the base. The last thing she needed right now was an enthusiastic and concerned greeting party. She was hoping people would be sufficiently distracted by what was going on in the sky to notice them sneak in the back. She popped the cockpit and carefully lifted herself out, trying not to put too much weight on poor Ben's legs, considering one of them was broken. He didn't stir as she clambered onto the surface of the ship, so she figured either she had done a pretty okay job, or he was simply too deep into unconsciousness to feel anything.

This was a small mercy, as Rey was much less graceful in extracting his body from the X-wing than she had been loading it. She winced as she lifted him a little too quickly and knocked his head into the ship's canopy.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," she said nervously as she lowered him down to her level, moving him into a horizontal position. She pushed his hair away from his brow. How innocent he seemed now, how completely normal—not an aspiring dictator haunted by the murder of his own father, but just a boy who had made a mistake. There would be much to discuss, much to forgive, that Rey knew, but she could see the promise even now, in his sleeping face. She had been sure of it all along: Ben Solo was not beyond redemption.

Rey kissed him tenderly on the forehead. "Sorry about that. I swear I'll be more careful."

She would have to be, if she didn't want to alert someone to their presence. Of course she'd have to face them at some point, but she was so spent that she didn't think she had the energy to explain herself eloquently, much less explain_ Ben_. Without Finn or Poe here to back her up—and she wasn't even certain Finn would do that, or Poe, despite his blind reassurances—she wasn't ready to face the music. She needed rest, and so did Ben. If she could just sneak them in and find a place to curl up and sleep till the rest of the Resistance returned, they'd be in a much better place to defend themselves.

The task proved not to be too difficult. Those who had remained behind to man the base were clustered in one area, talking among themselves and calling in commands and advice to the fighters in the sky. Rey kept to the treeline, staying in the shadows with Ben touching her hip. No one was guarding the entrance to the caves, and silencing her movements with the Force Rey slipped into the cool darkness, carrying Ben to safety.

The cave system didn't go too deep, but Rey was determined to put as much distance between them and the entrance as she could. But she didn't get far before she had to stop in her tracks. Leia's robe lay empty where the General had last been, where she had reached out to her son one last time. Rey swallowed the hard lump in her throat and wove her fingers through Ben's unknowing ones.

"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you for saving him. I couldn't have done it without you."

She felt a ripple in the Force as though in response.

Blinking back tears, Rey resumed her task of finding them a nesting place. There were several cots against the back of the wall, and while they weren't exactly hidden, they were the best she could do. Their discovery was inevitable, but at least she could make Ben comfortable for the time being. She settled him down on a cot, relieved that she could finally let go of his weight, and pulled the blanket up to his chest. She had to laugh as she smoothed the wrinkles out of the blanket on his chest.

"Look at me. It was hardly any time ago that you were trying to convince me to join you, and now here I am, tucking you in." She knelt beside him and laid her cheek against his shoulder. "If this is joining you, I guess it's not so bad after all." And without meaning to, without realizing it, Rey fell asleep.

**Author's Note: Oh my goodness, I did not expect the reception this fic has gotten so far. Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and encouragement! I felt a void in the story after I saw TROS and needed to mend it - it seems like a lot of you needed that too! I'm so happy I can help heal the wounds of the movie and I hope you keep enjoying this sweet little story! :)**


	8. Chapter 8

Rey woke in a puddle of her own drool. Her cheek was glued to Ben's sleeve, and her neck screamed with stiffness. She lifted her head, turning it from side to side to loosen up her joints, and wiped an embarrassing amount of saliva from her mouth.

There was still a dark stain on Ben's sleeve, though. She dabbed at it with the end of her tunic, to no avail. "Well, I tried," she said. "Sorry for being disgusting."

Someone cleared their throat, and it wasn't Ben. Rey nearly jumped out of her boots in surprise, scrambling to her feet and facing the source of the noise: a group of people gathered at the entrance to the cave. Poe, Finn, Chewbacca, Jannah, Rose—a handful of Resistance fighters she respected and called friends were standing there, gaping at the scene in front of them. Rey's jaw worked up and down several times as she mustered the courage to speak.

"This isn't what it looks like," she began.

"He's dead, right?" Finn stepped forward from the line, a familiar intensity igniting in his eyes. "Tell me he's dead. If he was alive, you wouldn't bring him here. Right?"

"Finn, I can explain."

"Can you?" Rose said. Judging from the look on her face, Rey might as well have betrayed them all. Rey didn't know the other woman well, but from what she had learned about her, she had an impenetrable sense of what was right and what was wrong.

"Yes," Rey said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt.

"That's Kylo Ren," Jannah said softly. "The Supreme Leader of the First Order."

"Not anymore," Rey said. "Please, let me explain."

"We're letting you," Poe said. He walked over to her, turning towards the others. "I trust Rey with my life. If she brought Kylo here, it must be for a reason."

"Ben."

Poe looked at her. "What?"

"His name is Ben Solo," Rey said. "Not Kylo Ren."

Chewbacca let out a long, unhappy yell.

"I know," Rey said, lower lip trembling with the threat of tears. "I know he did, Chewie. And the act destroyed him. Ben is different now, he's—he's _changed_. We've been connected through the Force—" now didn't seem like the time to explain the term dyad, so Rey glossed over it "—for a while now, and I've seen what killing Han did to him. He's been haunted by it since the moment it happened. I'm not asking you to forgive him, I'm . . ."

"What _are_ you asking?" Finn demanded. Poe waved a hand at him as if to tell him to settle down, but he studied Rey keenly, eager for the answer, too.

Now that it came to it, Rey realized she didn't know. She hadn't even _talked_ to Ben since the throne room, unless you counted one-sided conversations. She didn't know what he wanted, or if he'd be furious when he woke up. If he would even still be Ben.

_No_, she told herself sternly. _You can't lose your resolve now. Ben needs you to protect him_.

"All I'm asking is for you to give him a chance," she said. The words hung suspended in the cave, the others staring at her with a mix of disbelief, curiosity, and anger.

Finn shook his head. "No," he said. "No. I'm not doing this."

He turned and strode from the chamber. With an uncertain glance at Rey, Jannah went after him. Rose paused for a moment, said, "I hope you know what you're getting into," and followed them. Only Chewbacca and Poe remained with Rey and Ben.

Poe sighed and put a hand on Rey's shoulder. She leaned into his support and before she realized what was happening, he had pulled her into a hug. She burrowed her face into his shirt and began to cry.

Seeing her distress, Chewie ambled over, patting her on the head with a big hairy paw. "I'm sorry," Rey said through her tears. "I'm just so tired."

Poe drew away, holding her at arm's length to inspect her. "You've looked better," he said.

"Thanks."

"What happened down there, Rey? Why is he suddenly so important to you?"

Rey looked up into Poe's face, marred by scratches but still as earnest as ever. "I died, Poe." She watched the color drain from his cheeks. "Emperor Palpatine killed me. I was there, beyond the stars, with the ancestors. Ben brought me back. He spent a great deal of his own life force to do it. He nearly died in the process."

Poe let his hands fall from Rey's arms, scanning Ben's face uneasily. "I thought he was on the emperor's side. He was the Supreme Leader of the First Order. So many people dead—by his hand."

"I haven't forgotten the gravity of his actions. I don't expect anyone to pardon him, or trust him, for a long time. But I think I understand him now. Ben Solo was lost, and it took me—and his mother—to find him."

"What do you mean? What does Leia have to do with this?"

"She reached out to him with the Force," Rey said. "When we were on Kef Bir. I don't know what she said to him, but I felt it—I felt it when she died. She gave everything she had to speak to him one last time."

Chewie gave a mournful groan. Poe scratched his stubble, his own grief and confusion agitating him.

"She never gave up on him," Rey pressed. "And neither will I."

There was a long pause. "Okay," Poe said finally, nodding like he was psyching himself up to do something he was scared to do. "Okay, yeah. For Leia. But I'm putting guards on this room, and when he wakes up, he's going to have a lot to answer for."

Relief melted the tension in Rey's shoulders. "Of course," she said, but she couldn't keep the smile out of her voice. "When he wakes up."


	9. Chapter 9

A medic came, at Rey's insistence. The Twi'lek woman glowed with impatience as an armed guard escorted her in. Evidently she did not think Ben was worth her time, and honestly, Rey couldn't blame her. Waves upon waves of pilots had been arriving at the base since she'd woken. If their places were exchanged, Rey was certain she'd chafe at being asked to care for the enemy who'd committed so many atrocities against their cause, too.

To her credit, the Twi'lek was efficient and professional once she got to Ben's bedside: checking his vitals and frisking his body for undetected wounds. Rey watched her movements with some measure of possessiveness.

"Right leg is broken," the medic said. "Along with several ribs. His pulse is too faint for my comfort and his breathing too shallow."

"Can you help him?"

The Twi'lek cast a reprehensive look at Rey, who bit her lip to keep anything else from coming out of her mouth.

"Of course I can." She rose from her perch on the cot and turned to the human guard who had followed her in. "Go get Reeves or Abani. Ask them to bring in the big medkit. I'm going to need help setting this bone."

"But Shanvuras," the guard said with a shifty glance at Rey, "I'm supposed to stay with—"

Shanvuras waved a dismissive purple-skinned hand. "I could drop an entire transport on him and he wouldn't even twitch. I'll be fine."

Too intimidated to argue further, the guard scuttled away to carry out her orders. Rey decided she rather liked this woman. They probably would have been friends under different circumstances.

"I could do it, you know," she said. Shanvuras looked at her expectantly. "Set the bone. With the Force." Zero expression disturbed the Twi'lek's features. Not easily impressed, then. "If you wanted to spare supplies, I mean. I'd need to rest first, though."

Shanvuras shook her head, her lekku swaying gently with the motion. "I'd advise against waiting too much longer. Unless you don't mind leaving him with a permanent limp, of course."

Rey made a weak hand gesture that was supposed to resemble surrender. It must have communicated it well enough, because Shanvuras returned to her patient, rolling up his sleeve and disinfecting the pale skin of his forearm with a swab.

"Thank you," Rey said into the awkward silence. "For helping him."

"It's my duty to look after people," Shanvuras said curtly. "I take it very seriously."

"And I admire that."

She saw the medic pause, ever so slightly, then resume her work. Rey had a question to ask, but she wanted to be deliberate in how she posed it.

"He did something with the Force I've never known anyone to do before," she said. "The effort of it knocked him out. Do you—do you think it's possible he might not wake up?"

"I don't know." Shanvuras slid a needle into Ben's arm—an IV for fluids, judging by the small tank attached to the end of it. "I don't treat a lot of Force users, no surprise there. But if I had to make an educated guess, I'd say that if the damage was done by the Force, it would have to be mended with the Force, too."

Rey was still chewing on that answer when the guard returned with another medic, a young man carrying a much larger medical kit than the one Shanvuras had brought with her. His hesitation was scrawled plainly across his face, but he obeyed the senior medic's commands, and together they set Ben's broken leg with a spectacular crunch, splinted it, and added supportive bandages to his ribcage. Rey hovered nearby, wringing her hands and biting her nails in turn, breathing easily only when they had finished and Shanvuras was packing up her kit. Rey moved to Ben's side and took his hand in hers, not thinking about what it might look like to the Twi'lek.

"You should get some rest yourself," the medic said pointedly. "I'm going to have someone come in and take away most of the cots for our own wounded, but I'll have them leave one for you. Don't think I haven't noticed how run ragged you are."

"Thank you," Rey said, genuinely touched by this woman's no-nonsense concern. "I think I could rest now."

_Now that he's been seen to_, she thought but did not say. She stayed holding Ben's hand as the medic and her guard departed, several people came in to carry the other cots away, and at last they were left alone. It might have been Rey's imagination, but Ben's breathing seemed fuller and more natural to her now, more relaxed. She hoped that meant he was in less pain.

She had been so preoccupied with helping him, she had barely noticed her own pain. Her body ached all over. Nothing was broken, thankfully, but she had a feeling she'd be covered in bruises tomorrow. Worse than that, though, was this marrow-deep exhaustion.

_I guess dying takes a toll on you_, Rey thought to herself with grim humor. Reluctantly she let go of Ben's hand for a moment to drag the cot they'd left for her closer to his, so they could be within arm's reach of each other.

"I'm not going anywhere," she told him as she settled down on the cot and drew the covers up around her chest. "I'm right here with you."

She reached out and laced her fingers lightly through his, giving herself permission at last to go to sleep, comforted by his touch, knowing that he was safe.

_

**A/N: Thank you all so much for your continued enthusiasm! Every single one of your reviews makes my heart so full. I originally intended this just to be a one-shot to soothe my soul but now I have so many ideas and I'm excited to share them with you. Some of you have remarked on how fast these updates are coming out-I happened to have a really open weekend, so it was just perfect timing and the lightning of inspiration! On that note, things will probably slow down now, but I'd still like to keep up the pace of 1 or 2 content updates a day until school starts again. Thanks so much and I hope you continue to enjoy!**


	10. Chapter 10

Rey woke with a needle in her arm. A haze of confusion hung low around her head. She blinked a couple times to clear it, vision sharpening and following the IV plugged into her arm down to a hydrotank. A medic must have come in to tend to her while she was sleeping. Shanvuras, more likely than not. The suggestion of a smile crossed Rey's lips. The Twi'lek may have had a hard exterior, but she was plenty soft inside.

Rey turned her head; the smile became more than a suggestion. Ben was still sleeping on his cot, chest rising and falling in a regular rhythm. Color had returned to his cheeks. His face was angled towards her, and for a moment Rey could imagine another life-where they were lying not on cots in a dreary cavern, burdened and broken, but in their own bed in a sunlit home on some verdant planet, their window open to the morning and the sound of running water drifting in through the casement.

A soft, throaty cry interrupted her fantasy of domestic bliss. She sat straight up, relaxing only when she saw Chewbacca sitting on a crate a few feet away, watching her with his usual earnestness.

"Hi, Chewie," Rey said, smiling. "You startled me. How long have I been asleep?"

The Wookie replied in a series of complex, guttural noises.

"Three days? Why didn't anybody wake me?" Rey swung her legs over the edge of the bed, IV tugging at her arm. She yanked the needle free without finesse, causing Chewie to growl a protest. "I'm fine. Has Ben been asleep this entire time?" Chewie nodded, them jumped up to grab her as she rose and swayed dangerously on her feet. "Really, I'm all right." She waved him away. "What about everyone else? Is the fighting over?"

"For the most part." Rey looked over to see Poe enter the cave. He'd cleaned up since the last time she saw him, scrapes dressed and hair combed back from his face. He smiled at her, but it was tired. He may have cleaned up, but he hadn't rested. "We destroyed all the starkiller guns and wiped out most of the Final Order's fleet, but there were just too many of them for us to be as thorough as we would have liked."

"Some got away."

He nodded. "A few. We're getting ready to send some teams out after them. They've had a head start, but I'm betting we can catch up pretty quick."

"I'm sure you can."

"Finn's raring to head up his own team," Poe said. HIs brow furrowed. "Rey-he's torn up pretty bad about this." He jerked his chin towards Ben. "You should really talk to him before he leaves. He's flying out tomorrow."

"I want to," Rey said. "And I will, I promise. But I . . . I need to make sure Ben's all right, first."

"Shanvuras has been looking after him. Says he's healing nicely."

"It's kind of her to do that. I know it's complicated." Poe let out a huff of air, like he couldn't decide if he was more amused or annoyed. "But I think there's something else wrong with him, something she can't fix."

"Let me guess: it's something mystical?"

Rey laughed, despite herself. "Something like that."

"Well, I'll leave you to it. I just heard Chewie talking, and I figured you were up. I'll have some food sent in, and maybe Shanvuras to check on you-she asked me to let her know when you woke."

"Thanks, Poe. I mean it."

"Ah, you'd do the same for me." Poe clapped her on the shoulder on his way out.

Rey wandered over to Ben's cot, dimly aware that Chewie was mirroring her movements, so that they ended up one on either side of the bed. They studied his sleeping face together in contemplative silence.

"You knew him," Rey said after a moment. "Before . . . before. What was he like?"

Chewie whirred softly.

"Yeah. That's what I thought."

Delicately Rey found space for her to sit on the edge of the cot, lifting Ben's hand and pressing it to her heart. He did indeed seem much improved, but Rey couldn't shake the nagging feeling that she was missing something. Shanvuras's words echoed in her ears. If the damage was done by the Force . . .

"Chewie," Rey said, "I'm going to meditate for a little while. I don't know how long it will take, but I don't want you to worry. Unless blood starts coming out of my eyes, I'm probably fine."

The Wookie hummed his concerned understanding. Rey smiled, hoping he could tell how grateful she was just for him being here with her, and then she closed her eyes.

The Force was waiting for her. It was easier than it had ever been to slip past the thin veil that kept her from living always in this realm, the realm of pure consciousness, the realm of starlight. The murmur of voices rippled all around her, incomprehensible unless she listened harder, or reached out to pluck one from the cosmos.

Ben? Ben, are you there?

The voices hushed at her call, the question hanging unanswered in the liminal space.

Ben Solo!

His name came back to her in a hundred whispers, the spirits of the Force echoing her summons. But among all the voices, she did not hear his. If he was only sleeping, then he should have been quick to respond-quicker still to respond to her, considering their inviolable connection as a dyad. Even if Ben died, Rey did not believe he could pass beyond her reach.

Then where was he?

She began to range further out among the stars, the shapes of the spirits that dwelt here parting for her more corporeal form. It was both unlike and like the moment she had died-the place was the same, but she was not. She was too solid, too mortal for this realm. She could sense her own body, back on the cot, waiting for her to return.

She had been searching fruitlessly for some immeasurable amount of time when a familiar voice brought her to a halt.

"He isn't here, Rey."

"Leia!"

General Organa shimmered before her, more splendid than Rey had ever seen her, dressed in a long white gown and silver headpiece, her long dark hair cascading in lustrous waves over one shoulder. Her face shone with youth and peace. No, this wasn't General Organa-it was Princess Leia.

"Hello, Rey."

Rey moved forward as if to embrace her, but stopped herself just in time. "Oh, Leia. I'm so sorry for what happened."

Leia's wry smile was heartbreakingly familiar. "I'm not."

"We're going to miss you something awful. We already did."

"Well, as a wise man once told me, no one's ever really gone."

"He really was a wise man." Rey smiled through the sheen of tears that had sprung up in her eyes. "But what did you mean, he isn't here? Do you know where Ben is?"

"I always know where my son is," Leia said. "He's been wandering. He needs someone to call him home."

She stepped aside. Behind her glowing form Rey could see now that the landscape of the Force changed here, darkening into twilight fields where only the loneliest, farthest-flung stars lingered. The feeling that crept over her when she peered into it reminded her of the pit on the island where she trained with Luke. It was not evil, but it might not be safe, either.

Rey looked to Leia uncertainly. The princess nodded once. Bracing herself, Rey moved past, and felt a frost fall over her skin as the dusk engulfed her. She glanced back, but Leia had vanished, the susurrus of voices fading in her wake.

She was alone. She stood at the edge of a smooth, infinite, unblemished body of water. No wind ruffled its surface, which stared like a haunted mirror at the gloaming sky. The few stars that hung overhead seemed at once impossibly distant and close enough to grasp. It was as cold as a tundra planet, so cold that the water should have been ice. Rey exhaled, and her breath burned white in front of her.

As it cleared, it revealed the far horizon, where a dark silhouette threw a shadow across the water.

"Ben," Rey said. "Ben!"

The figure stood still, unmoving. Rey hesitated, lifted one foot, then touched it lightly to the water. Her boot met solid ground beneath. The water was scarcely an inch deep. Rey began to walk, slowly at first and then picking up speed, towards the horizon. After a few moments she noticed that something strange was happening: nothing. Nothing had changed in her surroundings; she still stood at the edge of the water, the horizon and the figure were no closer than they had been before.

Rey started to run. Her breath pierced her lungs with spears of frigid air. She ran for five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen, before she had to admit to herself that she wasn't making any progress. Ben was just as far from her as he had always been.

"Ben!" she cried, knowing it was useless. She came to a stop, catching her breath, trying to shuffle her thoughts into order. What had Leia said? He needs someone to call him home.

She planted her feet and grounded herself as best she could where there was no ground. She lifted her face to the sky that was not a sky. She felt the cold air against her skin. She closed her eyes, and in her soul, said: Ben.

Their bond blazed between them, bright as a brand in this twilight realm, so wild and undeniable that it nearly lit her on fire. Every synapse in her brain sparked at once. Her blood sang with the renewed connection that illuminated this strange limbo that they occupied together.

She felt him turn.

She opened her eyes to starlight like no other. The dusk of the world had fallen away, the water had faded, and they were suspended among the stars, blazing bright enough to blind them both. The distance between them had collapsed upon itself, and they were only a few feet apart.

Ben Solo stood before her. Here, in the heart of the Force, he was healed of wounds to body and spirit. His hair was impossibly dark, so dark it hurt to look at, and he wore a simple black robe that made him look like a padawan again, young and unhaunted by his own sins. His eyes caught hers and held, and for a moment she saw no recognition there, and her heart sank.

But then he smiled, and her world broke open.

"Rey," he said, and she ran to him. He opened his arms and she fell into them, sobbing. The wreath of stars around them dimmed in reverence. He pressed his lips against the crown of her head and she felt his own tears slide into her hair. They stayed like that for a long moment-it could have been a century, for all either of them knew-before they drew apart, still clasping each other at the forearms, unwilling to lose contact now that they had made it again. "Rey, what are you doing here?" He was crying and grinning at the same time, and somehow the combination of the two made him seem even more boyish and innocent.

"I came to bring you back," Rey said. "Just like you did for me."

He lifted a hand to her face, brushing her tears away with a thumb. "We can't keep bringing each other back from the dead, you know."

"You're not dead," Rey said. "You're just unconscious. Your body is in the real world, with mine. It's just your soul that's been . . . getting distracted."

"Distracted by you."

Rey laughed, ducking her head shyly. "Saving me. But you did that already-you can come back now."

Ben lifted her chin so she was looking up into his face. "I'd go anywhere with you, scavenger. Just lead the way."

He bent down and kissed her, setting the stars on fire.


	11. Chapter 11

When the kiss ended, they were back in the cave, Ben on his cot and Rey perched beside him. Rey's hands were in his hair, one of Ben's lingering under her chin. To the uninformed onlooker, they had never moved at all, save for Ben to reach out, Rey to lean in, and their lips to meet. But there were no onlookers—Chewbacca had taken his leave, not that they noticed. They pulled barely an inch apart, just to look at one another, to drink in the real, living, breathing versions of their other halves. Their eyes searched each other's as if for answers to serious questions.

Then they burst into laughter: unadulterated giggles from Rey and a soft chuckle in the back of Ben's throat. His was tentative, like he didn't quite trust it, but his smile was true. She didn't miss his shyness in accepting that this moment could be happy—that _any_ moment could be happy—so she kissed him again, quickly this time, just a little extra convincing.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi." He reached up and meticulously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. His thumb lingered there, following the curve of her ear down to her jawline. "Rey."

"Ben."

"I like it when you say my name."

"I like saying your name. Good thing, too, since I've said it about a thousand times since you—since you brought me back." Rey kissed the palm of his hand, which was still tracing the shape of her face. "It's a good name. Much better than Kylo Ren."

A shadow flitted across Ben's face, and Rey realized she had overstepped. For her, perhaps, it was easy to jump feet first, but Ben's journey had been longer and much more complicated, and it was far from over.

"I'm sorry," she said, averting her eyes for the first time since they'd woken together. He gently guided her face back towards his.

"You have nothing to be sorry for. Rey . . . you saved me."

"No." She shook her head, in part against the tears that were rising without her permission. "No, I didn't. You saved yourself."

"I couldn't have done it without you."

She bit her lip, but the tears fell anyway. She wiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand. "We saved each other. Can we at least agree on that?"

He nodded. The gentleness in his brown eyes surprised her. She was used to seeing intensity when she looked at him, or barely bridled anger—that is, when they weren't fighting. Images of his face flashed before her eyes, a chaotic collection of firsts: the first time he took off his mask, the first time the Force had brought them together across space, the first time he had asked her to join him. Somehow she had seen the truth in each one of those firsts, even if he had not seen it in himself.

"Good," she said, very matter-of-fact. "That's settled, then. How are you feeling?"

Instead of answering, every muscle in Ben's body tensed, his gaze drawn as if by magnet past Rey's shoulder. Rey turned, heartrate skyrocketing.

"So," Finn said, "he's awake."

He was flanked on either side by Poe and Chewbacca, who gave Rey an apologetic look. She must have been under for a while.

No one answered. Ben's body trembled against Rey's hips, but she didn't think the emotion he was feeling was anger—not quite.

Finn, on the other hand, was bristling with it. "Good," he said. "Now we can decide what to do with him." He turned on his heel and stalked out.

"Finn!" Rey jumped to her feet and started after him, then paused to glance back at Ben, who simply nodded, assuring her he'd be all right on his own for a moment. Chewbacca voiced his agreement, so Rey put aside her reservations and went running after her friend.

He had only made it as far as the entrance to the cave system. The forest beyond was experiencing time like Rey had not been since she got here, and the light of late afternoon was failing in the trees. Even so, Rey had to blink several times for her eyes to adjust, not only to the light but to everything else; the cavern was packed with people, ships, and equipment, and the noise of it all was thrown into the vaults of the cave. The stimulation was almost too much for her, and she realized now just how removed she had been from everything for the last couple of days. She pushed the extraneous stimuli to the side and focused on Finn's retreating back.

"Finn, wait!" Rey knew she was attracting attention, attention she didn't want, but she forced herself not to care. "_Please!_"

Seemingly against his will, Finn stopped. He turned around slowly as she approached, his fists clenched like he was ready for a fight. He had already decided how to feel. Still, she had to try.

"Why did you bring him here, Rey?" The note of pleading in his tone caught her off guard. "Why?"

"I wouldn't be alive without him," Rey said. "He—"

"Saved you, yeah, I know. Poe told me." Finn moved closer, lowering his voice so no one could overhear. "Do you really think he did that out of the goodness of his heart? He wants something from you, Rey. He always does."

Rey shook her head. "You don't understand. He's different now. He's changed."

"Come _on_," Finn said with raw frustration. "You can't really believe that. I've known him a lot longer than you, Rey. Do you honestly think someone like him could change overnight?"

"You don't _know_ him," she said weakly.

"I know he's killed hundreds of people. Not just ordered it, he did it himself. He killed his own father. He's the reason Leia's dead."

"She sacrificed herself to give him a second chance." She was fighting back tears again, and she hated it. The hardest part about this that Finn wasn't _wrong_. Everything he was saying had a grain of truth to it, if not more. "Would you throw that sacrifice away?"

"No," Finn said, offended. "But I'm not about to take it for granted, either. Just because he's her son doesn't absolve him of his crimes. And it doesn't mean he doesn't still want to destroy us."

"He doesn't."

"Yeah, well, we'll see. That'll be for a council to decide. Tonight."

And with that, Finn left her there, stranded in a sea of people avoiding eye contact, her heart caught in a storm of misgivings and dread.

**A/N: We're getting into the hairy stuff now! Exciting. Just as a note, I'm very likely not going to update tomorrow, as I'll be spending the day with my family. But I'll be back ASAP! Wishing you all a peaceful holiday. If this is a stressful or difficult time for you, I wish you solace and hope, and know that I'm thinking about you! Lots of love for my Reylos 3**


	12. Chapter 12

"Let them."

"_Let_ them?" Rey repeated. "You mean you _want_ to leave your fate in the hands of people who don't even know you?"

"Yes," Ben said simply, in that mild manner of his. Rey was pacing around his bed, having returned from her failed conversation with Finn in a huff. She had immediately launched into planning how she could somehow subvert the council or ensure an optimal outcome. Ben, however, seemed to have no interest in engineering his own future, but appeared resigned to accept whatever consequences were assigned to him.

Rey stopped pacing and knelt at his bedside. He was sitting up now, propped against a stack of squashy pillows Shanvuras had brought for him. The medic had declared him surprisingly healthy, if weak, and had prescribed a strict routine of water, food, and further rest—real sleep, she'd called it, "not this Force stupor nonsense"—before he could attempt any significant activity.

"Ben," Rey said for the millionth time, "most of the people on the council will have no idea what you did for me. They don't know that we would have lost without your help. I'll tell them everything, of course, but they'll probably want revenge more than they'll want to dispense mercy."

"Let them have their revenge." Ben smiled gently at Rey's look of distress, reaching out to gather her hand in his much larger one. "They deserve justice, Rey. And I deserve punishment. A man who gives no mercy earns none."

"But I—"

"Please." Ben's voice was coarse with emotion. "Let it rest, Rey. There are so many things I can never undo. But I can pay for them. I have to. They need me to. And so do I."

Rey opened her mouth to say more, but something in his eyes stopped her. It was the pain she'd seen in him since the day he killed his father. He was a broken man; the damage he'd done to himself was in many ways irreparable. Perhaps there were some small hurts that could be mended, some losses to make peace with, but most of his gaping wounds would remain raw for years, if not the rest of his life. He wanted to serve whatever sentence the council dealt to him as penance, a way to let his former enemies heal, even if the healing it brought would only ever be superficial, and never satisfying.

"Okay." Rey leaned in and kissed him. He responded tenderly, sending bursts of shivers down her spine, fireworking all the way to her hands and feet.

Rey pulled away at the sound of footsteps entering their cavern. It was Jannah, carrying the tray of food both Poe and Shanvuras had promised. Rey rose, shielding her surprise that it was Jannah making the delivery, instead of one of Shanvuras's underlings.

"Thank you," she said, relieving her of the tray and setting it down on her own empty cot. "Is the council ready to convene yet?"

"Not quite," said Jannah. She paused, standing there awkwardly, apparently uncertain of what to do with her hands. "Sorry, but—could I speak with you a moment? In private?"

"Oh," Rey said. "Er, sure. I'll be right back," she added to Ben. She didn't notice he was far more concerned with the food that she'd set just out of reach than he was with her leaving him alone.

Rey followed Jannah out of the room and into the corridor that connected the system of caves. The passageway could hardly be categorized as private, what with the constant flow of traffic moving through it, but Jannah guided Rey into a small, naturally-occurring alcove in the wall.

"What's this about?" Rey asked.

Jannah took a quick survey of their surroundings before answering. "Finn. Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"Yeah, it's about Finn. About both of you." Jannah sighed, seemingly losing patience with her own inability to explain herself. "Listen, I know I don't know him half as well as you do, but I get him in a way that not many other people can."

Rey nodded. She didn't know much about Jannah's past, just that she'd been a stormtrooper who'd defected with a group of likeminded others.

"Point is, I understand where Finn's coming from about your boyfriend." Jannah held up a hand to cut off Rey's imminent argument about her choice of vocabulary. "I'm not here to judge you for seeing goodness in someone, even him. I'm just here to offer my two cents because I think they might be useful."

"Go on."

"Finn thinks he's angry at you for bringing Kylo Ren here, into a place he considers safe. But really, he's hurt. He sees Kylo Ren as a symbol of the suffering he was forced to endure—and asked to enact on other people. It makes sense because, well, it's true."

A warm, liquid sensation was dripping down Rey's throat and into her stomach. Guilt.

"None of that will ever change," Jannah continued. "Even if 'Ben Solo' declares his undying devotion to the Resistance and repents every heinous crime he ever committed, Finn will hate him for being part of a system, and leading a system, that robbed him of his childhood and forced him into a life of servitude for a cause he never believed in."

Rey understood. It was one of the first things she and Finn had bonded over: the fact that their identities had been stolen from them and had long remained beyond their control. The First Order may have existed before Snoke had recruited Ben, meaning Finn had been inducted long before his involvement, but that didn't make Kylo Ren any less culpable, or Finn's pain any less real.

"But what Finn hasn't realized," Jannah said, "and that I've had the time and space to come to terms with, is that Ben Solo isn't that different from me and him. He was an impressionable kid who got swindled into taking a bad deal. We've all been there." Rey frowned, taking this all in. "Not a one-to-one comparison, maybe, but it's not such a leap to imagine what could happen if the brainwashing worked on you, and you fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. Finn could just as easily have gone the route of Captain Phasma or Kylo Ren and become a tyrant. But looking at that is uncomfortable, so he's just angry without doing the work to figure out why. I'm not saying that he owes Kylo Ren a second chance or that you should expect him to greet an old abuser with open arms. But this is a—complicated situation, and I think it's worth considering that not everything is as clear cut as we'd like it to be, and that we could all be seduced to fighting for a bad cause, if we were fed so many lies and were vulnerable enough to want to believe them."

For a few seconds Rey couldn't find her voice. She was impressed by the woman's emotional savvy. She had held the same beliefs long before this conversation but could never have articulated them so clearly.

"Th-thank you," she said. "I think you're right. In fact, I know you are." She thought of what she had seen in the Death Star, that creature that had worn her face and bared those pointed teeth at her. Was there some version of all of them that had chosen darkness? Emperor Palpatine had held the survival of her friends hostage for the ransom of her willingness to join him. And she had been a hair's breadth away from taking his deal. It wasn't the same as what had happened to Ben, but Jannah had hit the nail on the head. The Dark Side preyed on vulnerability. That truth didn't absolve anyone of their sins, but—it humanized them.

Jannah nodded. "I just—I just wanted to let you know what I was seeing from my side of things. Finn doesn't hate you, Rey. He's just in a lot of pain, and he doesn't know how to deal with the fact that you've become a part of it."

"I understand," Rey said softly, almost a whisper. "I never wanted to cause him pain. But I . . . I care very deeply about the man in that room, too. We're connected in a way I've never been with anyone else. It helps me see him. Kind of like how you can see Finn."

"Yeah. I get it. I hope I helped. I'd like something good to come out of the council, or something better than what we've had until now, anyway. There's a lot of other things to decide, not just the fate of Kylo Ren."

"Would you be willing to speak? About what you just told me?"

"I can speak to my experience," Jannah said. "Nothing else."

"That's good enough for me," Rey said. "Thank you, Jannah. See you at the council."

"Sure," Jannah said, and the two women parted ways.

Rey returned to Ben's room to see the plate of food floating up from the tray on her cot and over to him. He froze like a steelpecker caught on a shipwreck, the food hovering in midair. Rey stared at him.

"I'm hungry," he said. Rey burst into laughter and went to go give him the rest of his food, pushing aside the important decisions that would be made later that evening.

**A/N: Thank you for your patience! The holidays were busier than I expected, but quite lovely. Thank you so much for over 300 follows! I'm excited to get back into this fic and squee with y'all some more. I'd like to note that I still have only seen the movie once, so I may make some continuity errors. I'm hoping to see it again next week. I'd also like to hear from you guys and find out what you'd like to see in this fic/where you'd be interested in having it go! I'll probably wrap up the meat of it before school starts back up in mid-January, but I could potentially keep working on it more slowly after that if there's interest, or do epilogues/drabbles after the main plot ends. Lots of love! **


	13. Chapter 13

The sun had gone down by the time the council assembled. Streaks of pink and orange slid across the sky, the last of the light draining into the horizon. Night came in like a timid traveler beneath the trees. Rey breathed it all in: the many colors of the forest, the sounds of the animals moving towards their rest, the earthy smell of pine needles, leaf litter, and soil. Though she'd seen so much since leaving Jakku, she would always be a desert kid at heart, and planets as lush as this one still filled her with a sense of wonder.

They had decided to convene outside, in a clearing a short distance from the base proper. Rey had arrived early, staking claim on a spot in front of the trunk of a large fir, and watched as the rest of the Resistance gathered. Someone had built a fire in the center of the clearing. Light and shadow moved fluidly on the faces of the people that formed a circle around it, their expressions grave, or at the very least stoic.

Rey fought the feeling of dread rising within her, to little effect. Her heart lifted slightly at the sight of Chewbacca and Poe entering the circle. Poe offered her a perfunctory smile; Chewie waved in a friendlier way. But neither of them came to stand with her, joining instead the Resistance High Command, of whom Poe, as General, ranked highest. Finn, Rose, and Jannah filed in near the officers, but of the three of them, only Jannah deigned to make eye contact with Rey.

For the most part, the group was quiet, murmuring solemnly amongst themselves as they jostled into place. A strange atmosphere after such an incredible victory. It went to show how thoroughly Rey's decision to rescue Ben and bring him here had stymied them.

Rey steeled herself as Poe stepped forward, the fire reflecting amber on his face, and the crowd fell silent in anticipation. Whatever happened next, whatever words were spoken, she resolved to keep a level head on her shoulders.w

"All right, everyone, listen up," Poe said. He lacked the finesse and poise General Organa had possessed when it came to addressing a group, but he could certainly command their attention. All eyes were fixed on him. "We've got a lot to discuss and not a lot of time to do it in. I'm sure you all have questions, and stuff you want to talk about. We'll get to that, but we're going to cover a couple of main topics first. When we're done with that, then we can open it up to everyone. Sound good?"

A murmur of assent rippled through his audience.

"Okay, great." Poe glanced at Commander D'Acy, who gave him an encouraging nod. "First thing on the agenda is the future of the Resistance. We were formed for the sole purpose of undermining and eventually quashing the First Order, which we've done." A light cheer went up. Poe raised a benevolent hand for silence. "Yeah, we deserve to celebrate, but I think we can all agree that our work is far from over." Some muttering, but most people were nodding. "The First Order destroyed the New Republic, leaving us without an intergalactic force for peace and communication. We've been talking about how we can start another one from scratch, but that'll be an entirely separate committee, made up of diplomats from the planets that want to participate.

"Our main order of business here, as Resistance fighters, is making sure that the First Order is really gone. We obliterated most of the main fleet, but there were some outliers that escaped, and we've obtained intel on several residual First Order bases on various planets. There may be more we don't know about. Right now, we're thinking we should split up into a couple of different task forces, some designated to hunt down the few Star Destroyers that eluded us after the battle, and some to investigate the First Order bases. Any questions so far?"

A dozen or so hands shot up. Poe called on the person closest to him, a Resistance pilot Rey didn't know. "How will the task forces be decided?"

"On a volunteer basis," Poe said. "But if one is heavily favored over the other, we may have to rearrange our manpower."

Next question: "Which planets have bases been discovered on so far?"

And so on and so forth. The questioning went on for some time, to the point where Rey stopped listening. Her anxiety was far too intense to pay attention to the minutiae of the matter, not with Ben's undecided fate hanging over her head. She tuned back in when it was Rose's turn to ask a question. "What will we do with the First Order loyalists once we've caught up to them?"

"Demand their surrender," Poe said. "If they do, then we'll take them as prisoners and evaluate their level of involvement and loyalty to the First Order values. Most of that will be carried out by the same committee of diplomats."

"Which brings us to our second topic," Commander D'Acy cut in gracefully. "The matter of the prisoner."

She didn't need to specify which one; everyone already knew. The reaction this inspired was more than subtle discussion, and neither Poe nor D'Acy tried to settle the crowd until a couple of minutes had gone by. Even then, D'Acy had to raise her voice to be heard.

"Yes, the rumors are true; we recovered Kylo Ren, former Supreme Leader of the First Order, during the battle. Rey reports that at the last moment, he turned cloak against the First Order, and helped turn the tide of battle." To her credit, D'Acy maintained a neutral tone, but it was clear from their body language that the Resistance found this claim dubious at best. "He is now recovering here, under guard. The decision of what to do with him remains before us."

She didn't even blink as the group collectively broke out into chaos; instead, she stepped closer to Poe and began to speak to him in a low tone. Rey stood at attention, every nerve in her body tingling and on alert.

D'Acy nodded at something Poe said and straightened up, once again speaking over the crowd. "We've discussed several options as to his sentence, but before we get to those, I'd like to review—"

She was interrupted this time by a commotion to her left; someone was pushing through the ring of people. Beaumont Kin, a man Rey knew only by name and had exchanged few words with, stumbled into the circle of firelight, breathing heavily, a look of distress on his face. A hush fell over the crowd.

"General Poe," Beaumont said. "We have a situation."


	14. Chapter 14

Rey muscled through the moving crowd in attempt to catch up to Poe and the others. As soon as Beaumont had arrived with the news that they'd received a communique from a Star Destroyer that had escaped the battle, the council had scattered as if he'd dropped a bomb in the middle of them. Now everyone was rushing back to base, Ben's fate deferred for the time being.

When she drew abreast with the Resistance High Command, who were tied in a tight knot at the head of the rush, Finn shot her a disapproving look. Rey ignored him and jockeyed in closer to Poe, who was deep in conversation with Beaumont and Commander D'Acy. She tried to catch scraps of their conversation to see if she could learn anything more about the situation.

"—deployed a squad earlier today," Poe was saying. She assumed he was talking about the teams he'd told her about, who were going to go after rogue First Order ships like this one. "I didn't expect it to go south so fast."

Clearly Rey had missed some vital piece of information. But with Finn glowering beside her, she decided not to push her luck and ask too many questions. Instead she followed the group back to base, where the High Command and some of the more prominent squadron leaders fell into a loose formation around the main holo table, which was currently playing and replaying the transmission Beaumont had received while the council was in session. A uniformed First Order officer flanked by two stormtroopers hovered in projection.

"We have acquired the team you sent in pursuit of us," he said smugly. The hologram flickered and changed, showing now half a dozen Resistance fighters, handcuffed at gunpoint. Everyone gathered around the table crackled with collective anger. "We are willing to negotiate their return in exchange for something valuable to us. It is our understanding that you have come into possession of a prisoner of great interest. Kylo Ren is a traitor to the First Order. If you agree to surrender him, we will return your crew. If you refuse—" He didn't need to finish his sentence. "Well." He chuckled. "You have twenty-four hours to convey your response."

The projection faded and went out. Across the table from Rey, Poe's face was grim. There was a moment of bleak silence.

"We're not going to give into their demands," Finn said finally, more of a question than a statement. "We can't give them Kylo Ren. That's like handing them another superweapon. That'd be insane."

"But we can't just let our people die," Rose said. "Those are our friends. We've lost too many people already." She was clutching a pendant that hung around her neck.

"I agree," Poe said. "We're not going to abandon them to their deaths."

"But Finn's right," Commander D'Acy said. "It would be madness to give them back their old leader."

"It doesn't sound like they want him because they miss him," Poe said. "They probably want to deal with him on their own terms."

"Or this is an elaborate ruse, and he's been in on it the whole time," Finn said.

"He's not _in_ on it," Rey said hotly. "He has nothing to do with it."

"Speak for yourself."

"I'm just trying to—"

"Rey."

Rey blinked, and mid-sentence she was at Ben's bedside, even as she stood with her friends outside the cavern. His empty tray was discarded, and his eyes were curious as they studied her.

"You're angry," Ben said. "I felt it in the Force. What is it?"

She hesitated; glanced to either side. Could the others hear her when she talked to him through their connection? "A rogue First Order ship," she said. "They've taken some of our pilots hostage. They say they'll give them back to us, in exchange for—in exchange for you."

Ben's stoic expression didn't falter.

"I won't let them, of course," Rey said. "We're figuring out another way."

"No," Ben said.

Rey frowned. "What do you mean, no?"

"There isn't another way," Ben answered. "Tell them you'll give me up."

"Absolutely not."

"If you don't, you'll never see those pilots again."

"You honestly think they'll hand them over once they have you?"

Ben smiled humorlessly. "No," he said. "They won't do that."

"Then what makes you think this is a good idea? Do you _want_ to go back to the First Order?" Her heart was beating fast now. _Don't say it_, she willed him. _Don't say it_.

"I want to help," Ben said, sending relief washing over her in cooling waves. "I know those ships like the back of my hand. I know where they're keeping the pilots. I can get them out."

"Finn knows those ships too," Rey said.

"He might. But no one gets on that Star Destroyer unless they have me."

"Okay," Rey said, crossing her arms. "I'm listening. What do you propose?"

"Tell them you take the deal. Tell them you'll meet them in neutral space to make the exchange. I doubt they'll bring their hostages. But they will send a transport, and when they do, we can overpower them, take their place, and go back to the Destroyer."

"Sounds risky."

"It would be," Ben admitted. "We'd have to kill their crew before anyone sends a distress signal back to the Destroyer. But I think it's the only chance you've got to rescue your pilots."

Rey pursed her lips. "I don't know if the others will agree to it."

"They might, if they exhaust all other options first," Ben said. "Convince them. If we could pull it off—they might look more favorably on me in the aftermath." He attempted what probably thought was a comforting smile. "But even if they don't, I would still like to help."

Rey reached out to touch him before remembering she wasn't physically present in the room with him. "All right," she said. "I'll see what I can do."

"You can do a lot," he said, and broke their connection.

Rey found herself back in the forest at the holo table, the other members of the Resistance bickering around her. Apparently no one had heard her conversation with Ben. She swallowed. She had her work cut out for her if she was going to convince them to let him help on this mission. But she was determined to try.

**A/N: Thanks for your patience with that cliffhanger! I had to buy time while I figured out what direction I wanted to take. Time for some action! :D**


	15. Chapter 15

"Absolutely not."

"There isn't another way," Rey said.

"There's always another way," Finn said, shaking his head vehemently. He hadn't been the only one to react negatively to Rey's suggestion of using Ben as a way to recover the hostages, but he was the most outspoken. "He's manipulating you, Rey. You're crazy if you think he isn't going to turn on us the second he's back with his First Order buddies."

"He wouldn't be going alone," Rey shot back. "We can both go with him."

"He could easily overpower us."

"He's barely strong enough to stand!" Rey said. She could not hide her rising frustration. "Even if he wanted to, he couldn't touch us. And I'm more than a match for him even at full strength, but I guess that's no comfort to you, since you don't seem to trust me anymore."

Finn's jaw worked up and down as he searched for a response, but Poe cut in first. "That's enough. It's not your call, Finn. Yours either," he added to Rey, quashing any feelings of satisfaction before they could fully form. "We're going to discuss our options calmly before we make any kind of decision. That being said, I would like to consider Rey's proposal as a serious possibility."

"It's very risky," Commander D'Acy, "but I'm not necessarily opposed to it under the strictest supervision. Who else has an idea of how to handle this?"

"Why don't we just tell them we're going to exchange prisoners, and then not actually do it?" Rose said.

"Ben doesn't think they'll even bring the hostages," Rey said. "He thinks it's a feint."

"He's probably right," Finn said grudgingly. "On that point."

"My plan would work either way," Rey said. "If they do bring the hostages, we just take out the escorts and rescue our people. If they don't, we can carry out the rest of the plan."

"I hate to say it, but she's right," Lieutenant Connix chimed in. Rey didn't know the young woman as well as she should, considering both of them had been close to General Organa. It seemed that Poe valued her opinion, too; he leaned forward and listened carefully as she spoke. "I don't see a viable alternative. We could send an attack force, but they'll just execute the hostages when they see us coming."

Poe nodded gravely. "I think our only real options are the bait and switch. We set up an exchange like Rey described-but the question remains whether we send Kylo Ren with our team or not."

"Don't we have to?" Jannah said. All heads turned towards her. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "I mean, if we show up without him and they don't have the hostages, everything goes south. I don't think we'll get a second chance after this one."

Poe and Commander D'Acy exchanged a look. The woman nodded almost invisibly. Poe sighed and stood up, hands on his hips. "Fine," he said. "Patch me through to that First Order bastard."

The so-called First Order bastard responded immediately, agreeing to the terms Poe set out: they would meet in neutral space, a predetermined distance away from both the Resistance base and the Star Destroyer, and exchange prisoners. If the officer suspected something, he didn't show it. As soon as they received the confirmation, the Resistance sprang into action. Poe and Commander D'Acy hand-picked the team, which included Rey, Finn, Jannah, and Rose, as well as three pilots who would man the transport while the other four infiltrated the Destroyer, if it came to it.

Rey felt certain it would come to it. She hurried back to Ben's cave to tell him in person.

"The ship leaves in two hours," Rey said. "Are you sure you'll be up to it?"

"I'm sure," Ben said. He kicked off his covers and swung his legs over the side of the bed, grimacing as he did. Rey moved to offer him her hand. At first it looked like he was going to reject her help, but then he put his hand in hers. She grasped his elbow with her other hand and helped him to stand. He wobbled on his feet for a second, then nodded, and reluctantly Rey let him go. She looked up into his face, still paler than moonlight, but the least haunted Rey had ever seen it. He met her gaze and chuckled. "You look so worried."

"I am," she said indignantly. "And for good reason."

Ben touched his thumb to her chin, quiet affection in his eyes, but his smile slipped. "I'm sorry," he said, and she saw the shadow grow upon his face once more. "For everything I ever did to hurt you. I know nothing I say or do could ever make it better-"

Rey took his face in her hands, startling him into silence. "Thank you," she said. "And I'm sorry, too. For everything that happened to _you_ that hurt you." She wanted to chase that shadow away from him forever, to banish the darkness to a place so distant even memory couldn't touch it. "We may not be able to change what we have or haven't done," she said. "But we can change what we do now, and what we do tomorrow."

He bent forward, tipping his forehead against hers.

"Let the past die," Rey said softly.

The sound of his responding laugh filled her with the sensation of starlight. "That's right," he said, and kissed the tip of her nose. "Kill it if you have to."


	16. Chapter 16

Two hours later, Ben had once again mastered the art of walking, but not before tottering around like a newborn colt for thirty minutes. Despite the gravity of the approaching situation, Rey had to giggle at him. It was as if he'd been lost in perpetual night for a decade and had suddenly emerged into a brilliant afternoon; different parts of his personality were coming to light that had too long lain dormant. And for Rey, at least, it was beautiful to watch.

"I feel like an idiot," Ben said when he stumbled for the eighteenth time.

"You look like an idiot," Rey agreed cheerfully.

That gave him the renewed vigor to cross the room and grab her by the waist, both of them laughing.

They ate another meal together and got him a fresh change of clothing before it was time to go. It was odd, but not unpleasant, to see him wearing something other than his uniform black. Rey rather thought brown suited him, and matched the deep earthiness of his eyes.

The humor they had shared over the last few hours drained out of them as a pair of guards came to cuff Ben and lead them both to the transport. Rey's instinct was to argue against the restraints, but she reminded herself that for this mission to succeed, Ben had to be perceived as their prisoner—which, to everyone but her, he actually was.

The squad boarded the transport in stilted silence punctuated only by necessary monosyllabic communications. All told it was Rey, Ben, Finn, Jannah, Rose, and the three other pilots who Rey didn't know by name, and who didn't take this opportunity to introduce themselves. Poe and D'Acy saw them off, swearing that they would keep in constant contact the whole time. Just as they were about to buckle up for the take-off, Poe took Rey aside and spoke to her in a low tone as she crouched down at the edge of the transport to be on his eye level.

"Listen," he said, "I know you've got your heart set on this mission being proof that Ben is a Resistance hero or a changed man or something." Rey made a face at this, but didn't interrupt. "And I'm not against that happening. I just want to make sure that if things don't work out like that, you'll be able to handle it."

"I've had plenty of chances to turn to the Dark Side already," Rey said. "I'm not going to start now."

Poe smiled wryly. "Not really what I was worried about, but good to know. I more meant—well, you're our only real defense against a Force user if things go south."

"I'll take him out if it comes to it," Rey said, hoping Ben couldn't overhear. "Have I ever let you down before?"

"Nope," Poe said, thumping the side of the transport. "That's why I've got my hopes up for good things with this. Good things, Rey!" He called the last part over his shoulder as he put space between himself and the transport, which was starting to rev up. Rey scampered up the ramp and found her seat against the wall next to Ben, strapping in as the door sealed shut and the ship gathered its power beneath it. Rey wanted so badly to reach over and put her hand on Ben's cuffed ones, but she felt the flint of Finn's stare across from her, as if he knew her urges, and she refrained.

"All right," Finn said, projecting his voice as the noise of the transport grew louder and they rose into the air. "This should be a short trip, so let's review the plan. The First Order ship that's flying out to meet us will dock to our transport. Under no circumstances will we make any moves until we see whether they have our people with them. If they do, we fake the exchange and then turn at my signal before they can leave with our prisoner. If they don't, we attack immediately, and the second half of the mission begins."

"What are my orders?" Ben said unexpectedly. Everyone in the transport caught their breath, looking to Finn. He was staring at Ben with unconcealed loathing.

"Your orders," he said, "are to shut up and do what you're told."

The air inside the ship was electric. Rey closed her eyes and willed Ben not to say anything incendiary. She'd done enough of that for both of them.

"What am I told if your plan doesn't work, and they take me?"

"Then we'll blow their ship out of the sky."

"Finn," Rey, Jannah, and Rose all said at once.

"It's the truth," Finn said. "All I care is getting our friends back. Once we do that, he can get blasted into smithereens or frozen in carbonite, for all I care."

Ben didn't even blink. He tilted his head slightly, studying Finn with apparent curiosity. "Funny. I seem to recall us fighting on the same side before. Why is it that you get to switch sides, and I don't?"

"Because you _chose_ that side. I didn't have a choice."

"Choice is an illusion," Ben said, and for a moment Rey heard that old steel in his tone. Her shoulders tensed.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, man," Finn said, and looked away, signaling that he was finished with this conversation.

For a moment Rey thought that Ben might pursue the point further, but the ship shuddered as it left the atmosphere, and he tipped his head back to rest against the wall. Rey leaned towards him and lowered her voice to where she was fairly certain no one else could hear. "I won't let that happen, you know. Blow you out of the sky."

"He wouldn't do it," Ben said, but he kept his voice at normal volume. Finn glared at him.

Rey breathed out frustration. "Must you make it worse?"

"For once, I'm not the one making it worse."

_As stubborn as ever,_ Rey thought to herself, but before she could make a reply, one of the pilots came over the intercom.

"We're approaching the coordinates," he said. "No sign of the First Order ship so far."

"I don't like this," Rose said.

"Something feels wrong," Finn said.

Rey agreed. There was something off about this. She closed her eyes and sank down into the Force. It was like slipping into a body of cool, refreshing water, its omnipresence a reassurance pressed against her being. But the relief of it didn't last for long. No sooner had she reached out to it, then a great looming shadow crossed over its warmth, a sinister umbra. Rey opened her eyes.

"They tricked us," she said.

"It's the Star Destroyer," came the pilot's panicked voice over the intercom. "It's a trap!"

"Get us out of here!" Finn said.

"I can't—they've got us in their tractor beam. They're pulling us into the ship!"

"Did you know this was going to happen?" Finn said to Ben.

"Leave him alone!" Rey said.

"Why are you defending him?"

"Why are you attacking him when he's just trying to help?'

"You don't know that, Rey, you don't—"

"Stop it!" Rose cried. "Both of you! You're acting like children. Now is _not_ the time!"

The transport shuddered as the tractor beam took hold of it and began to drag it towards the Destroyer. The team glanced around at each other, aghast.

"I guess we're skipping to the second half of the mission," Rey said with resignation. She had a bad feeling about this.


	17. Chapter 17

"Okay, what's the new plan?" Rose said. The note of urgency in her voice spoke for everybody else. The slow pull of the tractor beam was like the magnetic force of dread, or at the very least, resignation.

Rey and Finn looked at each other on reflex. They were used to being caught in compromising situations together. If they had done it before, with much more improbable odds, they could do it now—if they could set aside their current differences long enough to solve this crisis.

Ideas were racing through Rey's head. She could try to fight the tractor beam using the Force, pry their ship out of its swallowing throat, and she could probably do it, too. The only problem was that that left them back at square one, and left the kidnapped prisoners still in the belly of the Star Destroyer. Rey saw in Finn's eyes that he was thinking the same thing as she was.

"We gotta let it happen," Finn said. "I know it could go all kinds of sideways, but it's our only chance to get to our pilots, if they're even still alive. Obviously we defend ourselves if they attack us outright—but if they take us to wherever they're holding the prisoners, we can all escape together."

The transport groaned around them as the beam eased it into the airlock. They were running out of time. Rey unclipped the lightsabers—she had brought both of them—from her belt and stuffed Leia's into her boot. It wasn't a perfect fit, but she would just have to hope that their captors were too preoccupied to check there. She turned to hand Ben the other before realizing his hands were still cuffed. She bent down and slipped it into his boot for him.

"You might need this later," she said.

"You might need it _now_," Rose muttered as the ship began to lower, then landed unceremoniously in what they could only assume was one of the Destroyer's many hangars. Rey imagined the scores of stormtroopers surrounding the ship at gunpoint.

"Better leave our weapons where they are," Finn said, and everybody unbuckled their seat belts and began to disarm themselves. The pilots trudged out of the cockpit, looking trepidatious. "You didn't do anything wrong," he assured them. "We were all idiots to think that they wouldn't double-cross us."

The ramp lowered with a hiss. The familiar timbre of a voice filtered through a stormtrooper mask floated up to them. "Come out with your hands above your head!"

Everyone looked at Finn. "You heard the man," he said. Nobody moved. "Guess I'll go first."

He put his hands to the back of his head and started down the ramp. Rose followed him, then Jannah, Rey, and Ben. The pilots brought up the rear as they trickled out of the transport and out onto the hangar floor. The reality matched the vision in Rey's mind: perfectly square formations of stormtroopers awaited them, along with the officer from the holo message. She failed to find his generic uniform and self-important smirk at all intimidating. He looked like every other First Order officer she'd seen. She hoped she got the chance to inform him that being lucky enough to survive the battle didn't make him special.

For now, though, she held her tongue as his gaze skimmed over them, satisfaction glowing in his eyes when they landed on Ben and then traveled to her.

"Well then," he said in his cold, patrician tone. "This is certainly a pleasant surprise. It looks like we got two for the price of one. The dyad in the force." The words fell out of his mouth in sarcastic blocks of ice. Apparently he didn't think they were that special, either.

"Good to see you again, Trusk," Ben said, parrying with sarcasm of his own. "You're looking well."

"Can't say the same of you," Trusk said, "though it's not exactly going to get any better from here. Captain?" He turned to a stormtrooper standing apart with three others. "I'm afraid I must adjust the plan on you once more. Take the nobodies-" he indicated the pilots along with Rose, Jannah, and Finn "-to the hold. And these two." He returned his narrowed eyes to Ben and Rey, evaluating the prize he deemed had just been dropped in his lap. "Take them to the bridge. I'm planning to make quite the example of them."

Rey felt Finn's desperate gaze boring into her as the stormtroopers began to carry out their orders, slapping cuffs on the prisoners who weren't already wearing handcuffs - so, everyone other than Ben - and shuffling the bulk of them off in one direction, with Ben and Rey following behind Trusk and his entourage. Getting separated like this hadn't been part of their Plan B, but they couldn't exactly initiate a showdown here in the hangar, so she gave him a flat, hard look of determination, which seemed to get the point across. They let themselves be funneled into hallways going two very opposite directions, the distance between them growing with every step.

"So," Ben said as they moved through the sterile hallways of the Star Destroyer. Rey was surprised at how talkative he was being, but she didn't react. "How have you been, Trusk? The last time I saw you, your tongue was attached to Admiral Hux's boot."

If Trusk was insulted, he didn't show it. He began to respond in the same arrogant tone he'd used before, but Rey didn't hear what he said - his voice was drowned out by Ben's, which resonated suddenly in her mind in a way it hadn't before. She looked at him sharply, listening as he spoke telepathically to her. _Are you thinking what I'm thinking?_

Using her instincts, she replied in the same way. _I don't know. What are you thinking?_

Ben kept his eyes trained on the hallway ahead, where two blast doors opened to reveal the gleaming windows of the Star Destroyer's bridge beyond. _I'm thinking we both have a lightsaber in our boots._

**A/N: Y'all. I can't believe how long it's been since I updated this thing. I've always wanted to come back and finish this, but between writing my own original book, finishing school, starting a new job, and *gesticulates wildly* the state of the world, it's been easier said than done! Anyway, I have a lot more free time right now and I'd like to make it through to the end of this fanfic. Thank you SO MUCH for bearing with me! You all are the best.**


	18. Chapter 18

Leia's saber knocked against Rey's leg as they followed Trusk through the blast doors and onto the bridge. The officers tapping away at the stations lining either side of the walkway looked up with unconcealed interest at their arrival.

"Mind your work," Trusk said sharply, and most of them ducked their heads, but Rey still caught one or two curious glances as they marched by. A frisson of energy passed through her when she happened to lock gazes with one of the women, and saw in her eyes not the hatred or resentment she'd expected, but a sort of nervous fascination that resembled something along the lines of hope.

Her thoughts were racing as she pulled her gaze away and focused her attention on the wide, polished-to-perfection window at the front of the bridge, where the stars waited. The stormtroopers that had accompanied them filed off to either side, forming rows of stark white helmets thrown in high contrast against the black beyond. Rey searched the sky as her thoughts sped towards their finish line. The truth was, she didn't know anything about these people-not the First Order as an entity, she knew more about them than she'd prefer-but the men and women who operated their technology, carried out their orders, piloted and repaired their ships, cooked meals in the mess hall, or patched up the wounded when they returned from battle. How many of them truly espoused the ideology of the overlords they served, overlords who would gladly sacrifice them at any given moment, if that's what it took? How many of them had even joined the Order willingly? Finn and Ben had taught her, each in their own way, how a person could be coerced, misled, twisted into something they had never agreed or expected to become. While it didn't absolve them of their sins, necessarily, it cast illumination on the paths that lay before them-paths that could lead them out of the darkness. Rey wondered how many people on this Star Destroyer would take those paths if they were given the choice.

Her train of thought was derailed by the sound of Trusk's voice, barking out orders. She and Ben were shuffled closer together, backs facing the glass, as Trusk prepared to send a transmission via hologram, with his captives as a backdrop.

"Broadcast on all First Order frequencies," he instructed the officer who was helming communications. "Cast as wide of a net as you can. I want all of those who remain to know that we stand undefeated."

"Should I send it to the Resistance base as well, sir?" the officer asked. Tusk hesitated for a moment, clearly weighing the risks and rewards of lording his catch over the enemy.

"No," he said finally, with some reluctance. "Best we don't bring their wrath down upon us just yet."

The officer nodded, pressed a few buttons, and signaled to Trusk that he was good to go. Trusk straightened, tugged at his belt uselessly, and began his puffed-up spiel.

"My friends," he said. "My fellow survivors. Whether you escaped the battle or have been manning our outposts throughout the galaxy, by now you will have heard of the unfortunate setback we experienced at the hands of the Resistance usurpers. It is understandable to feel daunted. But I am here to inform you that the First Order remains unbroken. In fact, the key to our imminent victory and resurgence has just wandered willingly into my lap."

Ben's voice crept into Rey's mind. _Ready to show him what exactly wandered into his lap?_

Rey paused, glancing over once more to the woman with whom she'd made eye contact earlier. Her expression was stony, but she met Rey's gaze with confidence, and gave her a nearly imperceptible nod.

_You know I am_, Rey thought back.

"These valuable prisoners will become symbols of our triumph," Trusk was saying when Ben and Rey opened their palms and summoned their sabers to them, the double snap-hiss of their coordinated ignition the sound of Trusk's so-called triumph dying a swift and timely death. Before anyone could react, they had angled their bodies towards each other and sliced their handcuffs off in two efficient strokes.

Rey savored the look of horror on Trusk's face as he turned to see her dropping down to one knee and swinging her lightsaber low, scoring him across the shins. With a howl of pain for all the remnants of the First Order to hear, he crumpled, and the rest of the bridge exploded into chaos.

The stormtroopers rushed them from both sides, but they didn't stand a chance against the skill and fury of Rey and Ben combined. Trusk had scoffed at the concept of the dyad they formed together, but there was no longer any doubt in Rey's mind that the two of them were inextricably bound. They fought as a unit, each one a reflection of the other, anticipating every movement and reacting in perfect concert. Much like the time they'd fought Snoke and his bodyguards in the throne room, their teamwork was impeccable, seamless, blocking the blasts and felling the onslaught of stormtroopers in a graceful, deadly dance. Alarms screamed overhead, and Rey was keenly aware that the spectacle was being transmitted live to the corners of the galaxy-and she was glad of it.

The blaster fire from the last stormtrooper on her side ricocheted off her lightsaber and struck him squarely in the chest. She stretched out her free hand as he collapsed and his gun flew into her waiting fist. She pivoted towards the female officer with whom she'd been silently communicating; the woman was standing at her station, frantically pounding away at the console like she was on an urgent mission.

"Heads up!" Rey shouted, and when the woman looked up, tossed the blaster in her direction. The officer caught it deftly enough, nodded, and turned just in time to open fire on the fresh round of reinforcements stampeding onto the bridge. Her fellow officers followed suit as quickly as they could, scrambling to gather the weapons of the fallen stormtroopers as more arrived. The soldiers didn't hesitate to turn their blasters on their own people. They were trained to crush rebellions, no matter where they arose.

Rey and Ben exchanged a glance before launching themselves into the fray. They made short work of the stormtroopers, but judging from the ongoing blare of the alarm, their reprieve wouldn't last long.

Rey startled when someone moved towards her, but she relaxed when she saw her unexpected ally climbing up onto the walkway. The woman's face was flushed and a little frantic, but she smiled at Rey, or tried to - it was clearly not an expression she was in the habit of making.

"I was able to open the cells where your friends were being held," she said breathlessly. Her hands were trembling as she clutched the blaster Rey'd given her. "It looked like they were making for the hangar."

"An exhale of relief escaped Rey's lungs. "Wow, that's-thank you."

"No." The woman shook her head emphatically. "Thank _you._ I wish there was a way I could repay you for-" her eyes flicked to Ben, standing at Rey's shoulder "-for showing us that we all have a chance. That we're worth saving."

Rey reached out and gripped her by the arm. "You are worth _every effort_," she said firmly. "The best way you could return the favor is to live the life you want, free from all of this."

The woman's eyes reflected the light that streamed through the window Rey had opened for her. "Thank you," she repeated. "Both of you. We'll do our best. If we succeed here, you won't have to worry about this ship ever again. Now go_-go!"_

She shook Rey's hand from her wrist and urged them towards the door. Rey nodded, grabbing Ben's hand before leading him across the threshold into the hallway, but she glanced back over her shoulder as the blast doors eased shut behind them. Bittersweet memory and pride mingled in her heart at the shrinking sight of the new resistance taking its first steps on the bridge of the Star Destroyer. Then she turned away, Ben's hand an anchor in hers, and together they moved forward down their own path.


	19. Chapter 19

Ben didn't relinquish Rey's hand until he needed both of his on his lightsaber. They cut through the hallways with synchronized efficiency, untouched by the waves of stormtroopers that broke upon them uselessly. As they drew closer to the hangar, though, retracing their steps, the ranks of the soldiers who materialized to hamper their progress thinned dramatically. It was evident that a massive upheaval was taking place behind the scenes on the Star Destroyer - an upheaval that they had helped to catalyze. Whatever the former First Order officers were doing on the bridge to help ease their passage, it was working.

Rey was honestly starting to get comfortable with the idea of a positive outcome when they came to a screeching halt inside the hangar, in the middle of a raging firefight. Their companions had beaten them in the race back to the ship - Finn, Rose, Janna, and the rescued prisoners had made it this far and were facing off with another group of stormtroopers. They were holding their own, but they were dangerously outnumbered, and Rey swung her lightsaber in anticipation as they started towards the battle.

The motion of the light caught Finn's eye; he glanced over and grinned instinctively when he saw her. "Rey!" he shouted, his voice echoing in the massive room.

Relief flooded her cells at the sound of her name from his mouth - he didn't hate her, not completely. "Finn!" she said, a familiar call-and-response. "We're coming!" He nodded, and for a moment everything felt right between them, their comfortable, certain partnership clicking back into place. But then Finn caught sight of Ben close by her side, and any trace of pleasure that he felt at her arrival vanished from his face. "Look out!" Rey cried as a stormtrooper seized the moment of opportunity to catch him off guard.

It almost worked. Finn whipped around just as the stormtrooper lunged at his blaster, trying to wrestle it from his grip. The two of them struggled for the space of a breath before a growl of energy tore the air by Rey's ear and she saw Luke's lightsaber - no, _Ben's_ lightsaber go pinwheeling past, gliding through the fray on a path carved out by Ben's mastery of the Force. The blade melted the stormtrooper's armor and sliced through his chest like it was water. Finn yanked his gun from the dead man's grip as his body crumpled, the lightsaber boomeranged, and Ben reached out to catch it neatly in his waiting hand.

Rey saw the two men lock gazes for an instant, and in that instant, she glimpsed a flicker of begrudging respect. Then the three of them did as they'd been trained to do, and sprang back into the battle.

No one could have begrudged them the fact that they made an excellent team; with Rey and Ben's aid, the group cleared the hangar in a matter of seconds. Rey and Finn were the last to board the ship, both of them of the same mind in that they wanted to make certain everyone made it on, but with their own unique motivations. Finn nodded curtly once Ben had sheathed his lightsaber and was headed up the ramp. When he gestured for her to go next, Rey decided to give him this one without putting up a fuss, and he brought up the rear as the ship roared to life.

Rey threw herself into the seat next to Ben and clicked in her belts, as he had already done, only this time his hands weren't cuffed, but free to grab the safety restraints where they crossed over his chest. Rey noticed Finn notice this particular detail, but to his credit, he said nothing, rather taking his seat opposite Rey and fastening his own belts with the unmistakable abruptness of anger.

Everyone inside the ship held their breath together as the thrusters gathered beneath them, the landing gear retracted, and the pilots gunned it. The ship tilted slightly as it took blaster fire from behind, but nothing so serious as to keep it from bursting through the airlock and crossing into the freedom of open space beyond. Rey finally exhaled when nothing stopped them - no pull of a tractor beam or barrage from the Destroyer's turrets - and the ship sped away as though they'd planned the whole thing.

"Well," Rose said after a minute, "that went better than I expected."

"You can say that again," Janna said. "We were hardly in our cell for five minutes before it opened again." She looked at Rey. "What happened on your end?"

Rey took a moment to explain everything, from Trusk's broadcast to the woman who had helped them to the insurrection they were leaving behind on the First Order ship.

"Wow," Rose said with unveiled admiration. "Good for them. And good for you. Both of you," she added, with a hesitant glance at Ben. "You did a pretty thorough job in there."

A murmur of agreement and praise rippled through the team that they'd rescued, followed by a round of _thank-yous_ primarily directed at Rey, that washed over her in a way she'd come accustomed to over the past few months. What she hadn't gotten used to, though, and didn't _want_ to get used to, was the shadow of disappointment that Finn cast on her anytime they were in the same room together. The break in the clouds that she'd glimpsed earlier in the hangar was sealed again, though the sunlight of his smile was still bright in her memory. Her eyes sought his in vain. Of all of them, he had not spoken, had not made a sound, and he would not look at her the whole flight back to base.


	20. Chapter 20

That night, they came together around the fire again, but this time in celebration, not deliberation. The triumphant return of the rescue party and the pilots had been greeted with an uproar of delight, relief, and pride, and all efforts to decide Ben Solo's fate had been set aside in favor of throwing a raucous party. The Resistance had scrounged their remaining stores of libations and was making a night of it, with the bonfire raging in the center, wheeling the dark, flailing shadows of the revelers around it as the hours wore on. Ben, of course, was not permitted to join the merriment but had been immediately escorted to his designated corner of the caverns, where Rey had spent some time with him before he insisted she go out to enjoy the celebration. The obvious fatigue in his face was the only reason she'd relented, the only reason she was out here now, leaning against a tree with a drink in hand, a drink she'd barely touched.

The rejoicing was another thing that she had barely touched - she felt strangely removed from everything happening around her, like she was visiting this place through the Force but her body was elsewhere, as she and Ben could do with each other. It wasn't until she felt a solid hand bear down on her shoulder that she shuddered into the present moment fully, turning to see Poe's cautious smile reflecting the firelight.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," Rey answered, angling her body towards him.

"Great party, right?"

"Yeah." She looked down at her full glass. "Great party."

He laughed, squeezing her shoulder before dropping his hand back down to his side. "Just teasing you, kid," he said. "I can tell you're miserable. But I've got a thought about that - maybe you shouldn't be."

She glanced up again, a streak of defiance blazing through her before she saw the softness in his eyes.

"I just mean that you have cause to celebrate," he added gently. "Not only did the mission succeed with flying colors - but from the way I hear it, your boy was a big reason that happened."

Rey considered protesting his use of the phrase "her boy," but the hope kindled by the rest of his words outshone the urge. "Yeah," she said. "Yeah, he really was. He helped me take out the captain and the stormtroopers, and get everyone on the ship. He didn't have to do that."

"You don't have to tell me that," Poe said. He took a swig of the drink he was holding. "I sure as hell know he didn't have to do that. Would've been a really great time to bail and go back to the First Order if that's what he wanted."

Taken aback by his agreement, Rey feigned a sip of her own drink while she gathered her thoughts. She licked the wetness off her lips and said, "He has no reason to go back there. Trusk only wanted to make an example of him. But in any case, it's a moot point now - I don't think that Star Destroyer is under First Order control any longer."

"That's what Rose said." Approval was bright in Poe's face. "Listen - I know there's a lot of uncertainty right now, about how everything's going to go after this, about how to rebuild from here. About what's going to happen to Kylo Ren."

"Ben," Rey corrected him, but without anger. "His name is Ben Solo."

"About what's going to happen to Ben, then," Poe said. "But between you and me, what happened today made a big difference. I've been talking with the rest of High Command, and - well, we're inclined to err on the side of mercy."

A thrill of excitement ran up Rey's spine. "Really?" she said, unable to hide it.

"Really," Poe said. "I mean, that's what the Resistance has always been about, right? Protecting the people of this galaxy from the cruelty of the First Order. From what you've said, it sounds like Kylo -_ Ben's_ seen a share of that cruelty himself. Personally, I don't think we'd be the good guys if we executed him tomorrow and called it a victory."

"No," Rey said, her voice soft. "No, we wouldn't be."

"That doesn't mean he's off scot-free," Poe said, lifting a finger sternly. "Before you get any big ideas. We still have some deliberations to make, and of course, we'll still hold a council to let everyone else's voices be heard on the matter, but I thought maybe you'd have a better time tonight if you knew what we were thinking."

On impulse, Rey lunged forward to embrace him, spilling some of her drink in the process. After a moment she felt his arms close around her in return. "You're a good man, Poe Dameron," she said in his ear. "And a good friend. Thank you."

His expression was sheepish as they pulled apart. "Don't go talking me up too much, now," he said. "I've got a reputation to uphold."

"Oh, don't worry. I wouldn't dream of it." Rey grinned and took the first real sip of her drink. It was delicious.


	21. Chapter 21

True to his word, Poe hosted another council the day after next, and gave everyone the time and space they needed to make their voices heard. Some voices - many voices - were raised in anger and the desire for revenge, but they were tempered by those who had mercy and forgiveness on the tips of their tongues, and in the end, no one objected to the ultimate decision reached by the council and by the High Command, who presented several options for a vote. As soon as the meeting concluded, Rey hastened to the caverns on light feet, a buzzing at the base of her sternum.

Ben was sitting on the edge of his bed when she entered, his head resting in his hands. His face was pale as he lifted it, though a light came on his eyes at the sight of the smile trembling on her lips.

"Is it decided?" he asked.

She nodded, and opened her mouth to answer, but found she had no words. Instead, she flew across the cave and threw her arms around his shoulders. Tears dropped from her eyes and onto his neck, slipping under his collar.

"That bad?" he said. One arm wrapped tentatively around her back.

"No," Rey said. "It's that good."

His hug deepened around her when she whispered the resolution of the council in his ear. _Exile. Under guard for the rest of his life. A comfortable prison on a planet yet to be named._ She sank into his embrace, letting herself perch on his lap as the truth of his fate settled in around them. They stayed that way for a long time, for how long she didn't know and couldn't care to count, with her face nestled into the crook where his neck met his shoulder, smiling and weeping and weaving her fingers into his dark hair.

When it had been so long that her neck grew sore, she pulled away, and he smiled softly and reached up to wipe the tears from her cheeks with his thumb. "Why are you crying?"

"Why aren't you?" she countered, then laughed. "I'm sorry. It's just - I feel like I've been barely keeping all these little pieces of myself together for so long. Sometimes I just can't hold all of them anymore, and a piece falls out." Ben made a low noise in the back of his throat at that. "What?" Rey said.

He fixed her with that intense, soul-searching stare of his, the one that could pierce through any shield made by her mind - not that it mattered. Her walls had come down days ago, in that place among the stars, where they'd met beyond the edges of consciousness, and she hadn't had any defenses against him since. She let his gaze enter the prism of her thought like a beam of light, and at that moment she felt more seen, more _beheld_ than she ever had in her life, on any planet in the galaxy.

"What I see is you," Ben said simply. "Whole. Strong. Too good for me."

She scoffed, tangling her fingers more securely in his hair as if in contradiction. "Me? A scavenger from Jakku?"

"You're more than that," Ben said, his tone a challenge. "And you know it."

"Palpatine's granddaughter, then?"

It was his turn to scoff. "I don't care about your bloodline," he said, "or where you were born or how you spent your childhood. I know -" He paused, looking away from her for a moment, then forced himself to meet her eyes once more. "I know I've said a lot of terrible things to you, and done a lot of terrible things to you, and to a lot of other people. I don't deserve the redemption you've offered me, the kindness you've shown me, none of it. But I swear to you that I won't waste this chance. There's no way that I could repay the debt I owe you - or to the galaxy - but I will spend the rest of my life making sure you don't regret this moment."

She gripped his face in both hands so that he couldn't look away again. "Ben. There is nothing you could ever do to make me regret this moment. Mercy is a gift, not a loan. And I know you will use it wisely. I see you too, you know."

"I know," Ben said softly, and a sweet memory formed between them as they both leaned in at the same time, their lips meeting for a kiss. Energy melted through Rey's body like a relief she hadn't known she'd been waiting for, and she gave herself over to the kiss, forgetting everything else for a blissful moment - forgetting that this shouldn't have made any sense, the two of them, and yet to deny it would have been to deny the Force itself.

When they parted, a smile lingered on both their mouths. "What about you?" Ben said after a minute.

"What about me?" Rey said, getting comfier on his lap.

"What will you do next?"

"Oh." She'd been so preoccupied with what would happen to _him_ that she hadn't stopped to think about that. "I don't know, honestly. There's some work to be done still here, picking up after the First -" She stopped herself.

"You can say it."

"Picking up after the First Order. Routing the last of their remnants from the corners of the galaxy. I'm sure I'll help with that. And then?" Rey let out a _whoosh_ of breath. "Well, I still have a lot to learn about being a Jedi. Or whatever it is that I am. That we are." She nudged him with her hip. "A dyad in the Force. I guess it couldn't hurt to explore that a bit more, right?"

"No," Ben said, his smile growing. "No, it couldn't hurt at all."

"Then it's settled," Rey said. "I'll have to make sure that I have visiting privileges before you leave. They might not love the idea, but they know I'd just find a way to you no matter what."

"Of course you would," Ben answered, and Rey marveled at the gentleness of the man that held her like a precious thing - the man that only a short while ago, was closer to her enemy than her lover. He had come through darkness, through fire, through stars, through void - and here he was before her, more human and more lovely than she ever could have guessed. Her heart had made room for him, and when they were apart, that room would be empty space waiting for him to come home. "We'll always find each other, Rey. Nothing can stop us."

And she knew that it was true.

**THE END  
_**

**A/N: Well, not quite the end! I'll be posting 1-2 more times with some epilogue stuff to wrap up, but we're almost done! I just wanted to thank everyone for sticking with me and being so enthusiastic and sweet about this story. It really helped me break through a dark period of writer's block and you all were a huge part of that too. I hope that this ending offers some healing from TRoS and some general enjoyment with all the craziness of the world right now. Lots of love, and see you in the epilogue 3**


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